Isabella Rose - My Granddaughter

Hello,

I was told that one of the best ways to help promote your charity is to do a blog, to explain who you are and what you do. So I set one up, then I realised I didn't know how to go about it and wasn't sure what to write.

Then today I was given some advice, just tell your story and why you wanted to set up the Foundation. Just be yourself so here goes.

I thought I would do exactly that and explain why I set up the Isabella Rose Foundation, why I am totally obsessed with it and why it is so important to me that it becomes a success.

Isabella Rose is first grandchild and I remember the day my daughter Amanda announced that she and her fiancee Geoff were having a baby.

Well to be honest it was my wife Nicola who broke the news gently to me to prepare me for the shock before my daughter came home. And shock it was, as a parent I had my concerns you want the best for your children and at 22 I thought my daughter was too young.

We had Amanda when we were 18 and we always tried to teach her that whist we wouldn't change a thing having her at such an early age was a very difficult start to life.

We had always told her to get her life sorted, qualifications, good Job, good income etc before she had children yet here she was at 22 just started her new job and she announced she was pregnant.

All that didn't seem important when I saw her face and I and gave her a hug when she came in, my little girl was having a baby and that was all that mattered.

The next few months were horrendous for her, she suffered really badly with morning sickness and had a few scares, it seemed we were constantly worried about her and her health.

Eventually everything settled down and me and my wife had started to really look forward to the birth of our Granddaughter Isabella Rose.

Then came the day that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Saturday 15th October 2011.

I was in the living room alone watching Saturday morning football when Amanda came in upset, she hadn't felt Isabella move and couldn't hear her heartbeat on the monitor.

My heart dropped, but I still tried to look calm and reassure Amanda that everything was alright, even though inside I was in complete panic.

Amanda, Geoff and Nicola went to the hospital, I stayed at home to sort out things for my other children. I was praying that that everything was ok, but deep down I knew it wasn't.

It seemed to take a life time before my wife Nicola rang me to tell me "we have lost her".

Heartbroken doesn't come close to how I felt, but auto pilot kicks in, its not about me its about Amanda and Geoff.

I rushed to the hospital to see my daughter, the next bit I will leave out its very personal and its not my story to tell. Its Amanda's and Geoff's and hopefully they will feel up to adding their own blog.

Sunday 16th October 2011 Isabella was born asleep.

A lot of what happened next seems a blur. To be honest I think I have blocked a lot of it out its only now while I am writing this that certain things are coming back to me.

For instance I remember sitting in the corridor outside the maternity ward on a low level window cill looking out of the window, in a daze. As I looked out of the window at everyone going about their business I just couldn't understand why the world just carried on, I wanted to scream and in fact I did, I just couldn't help it.

The next few months were horrendous, as dad to see your daughter in so much pain is devastating. If one of my children have a problem its my job to protect them to sort the problem out to make everything alright except this time there is absolutely nothing I can do. I am useless and I hate it!

Not only are we worrying about our daughter but we have lost our granddaughter as well.

I suppose I am trying to look for some positives and in a way we were "lucky" in the fact that we got to be with Isabella for a few days, and we got to hold her.

When I got to hold her in my arms I promised her two things 1) I will always look after her mum and 2) I will never ever forget her.

And this is how the Isabella Rose Foundation came to be.

This is my way of making my granddaughter proud, to do the best I can for her, to keep her memory alive.

I don't mind admitting that I am obsessed with the Foundation, its practically all I think about. I am proud of it and I really want to make it grow and raise as much money as I can to help our charities.

I don't think people outside of my close family appreciate what the Foundation means to me and why I do what I do, I can have seen some people roll their eyes when I talk about it, when I'm coming up with yet another fund raising idea.

And to be totally honest its only tonight when I showed this to Nicola that we actually realised why I am so passionate about it, to me the foundation is my granddaughter! I don't have her so I have this. I'm just being the best granddad I can be and by doing the best I can to help others in her name then I am doing my best for her.

Thank you for reading

David